Silverbrook Mine

Overview

A mid-19th-century lead and silver mine near Ilsington on eastern Dartmoor, worked to 66 fathoms via a substantial pumping and winding plant, whose surviving ivy-covered engine tower is often mistaken for a folly.

History

Silverbrook Mine, in Silverwood east of Ilsington, was worked for lead and silver -- not tin, despite lying within the wider Dartmoor tin-mining district -- extracting ore via an Engine Shaft from a pair of north-east to south-west trending lodes. A 20-inch pumping engine was erected in November 1852, alongside a 10-inch winding engine (whim), and the mine reached a maximum depth of 66 fathoms. Recorded output for 1854-56 included 93 tons of 65 per cent lead ore and 80 ounces of silver. In 1854 a miner, Richard Payne, was killed in an underground rock fall -- a single-fatality accident recorded in the local press at the time, below this archive's threshold for a full disaster record.

Geology

Lead and silver in Silverwood east of Ilsington — not tin, despite the mine lying within the wider Dartmoor tin district.

Workings

Worked a pair of NE-SW lodes via the Engine Shaft, pumped by a 20-inch engine (erected November 1852) and wound by a 10-inch whim; reached 66 fathoms deep.

Closure

The closure date is not known beyond the mine being active through the mid-1850s, the period for which output figures survive.

What remains

Extensive tailings dumps survive, along with the ruins of several buildings and possibly a wheelpit; an ivy-covered engine tower on the site is often mistaken by visitors for a folly.

Tailings dumps, building ruins, a possible wheelpit, and an ivy-covered engine tower.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Recorded output for 1854-56 at Silverbrook Mine included 93 tons of 65% lead ore and 80 ounces of silver. ¹
• A 20-inch pumping engine was erected in November 1852 alongside a 10-inch winding engine (whim); the mine reached a maximum depth of 66 fathoms via the Engine Shaft. ²
• A large spread of spoil lies in front of the mine buildings; the area of larger stones was the site of the sorting shed, an open wood-roofed structure with a low bench where women hand-sorted the ore brought up the shaft before it left the mine by horse and cart. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Silver Brook Lead Mine — Grace's Guide
2. (secondary) Silverbrook Mine, Ilsington, Teignbridge, Devon — Mindat
3. (observational) Silverbrook Mine by Alan Hunt (Wikimedia Commons photograph and caption, 2013) — Wikimedia Commons

Record created: 1 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026